There Are Always More Questions!

[Errol1]

I'm supposed to look at another Reatta this week. The owner is a woman whose husband died, and she doesn't use the car. She doesn't know the year, but she says the brakes were changed over to Riviera brakes because he hated the old ones. So, I'm assuming 88-90 model.

 

Here is the question - do you think the brake's being changed "destroys" the car. Personally, I don't. But I'm curious to hear the opinions of people who have been into the Reatta longer than I have (only a couple of years as an owner). 

[Barney Eaton]

With an car,  as they get older the owner may make changes.    If you are a purest, and want a 100% original then you must look them over to find all the changes made by previous owners.

Many owners have concerns with the Teves ABS brakes used on the 1988-1990 Reatta.........at the time those ABS brakes were state of the art,  good quality, and there were no concerns.

The problems (in my opinion) were not with the Teves ABS brakes but with finding competent mechanics to work on them.   They were only popular for 4-6 years in the late '80's so finding a mechanic 28 years later can be a problem.

In this case of the car you are looking at......the owner, for whatever reasons, chose to convert it to a more conventional vacumn boost brake.   Unless the cars is spectacular, I would leave it as is and not worry about the brake change.

 

[handmedownreatta]

thats what im going to do if my brakes need expensive repairs.i never liked antilock brakes anyway.

[Cargirl]

Barrett-Jackson and the C2 Corvette fanatics have not done any favors to the classic car hobby. Numbers matching this and that have taken a lot of the fun out of the hobby and have lead people to spend vast amounts of money for technical reasons. If the previous owner updated the brake and they are better now, that is a very good thing and would be a reason to buy the car, not take a pass.  I am doing a correct frame off restoration on the 1970 pace car. It came with drum brakes in the front and according to the Barrett -Jackson guys I should have stayed with the drum brakes, technically the correct ones right? No way, the car will be a better driver and safer with the disc brake upgrade so that is just what I did. Just my 2 cents.

[stall]

I have a 90 Reatta and while everything is good on it right now I think a conversion to a conventenal brake system would be the path I would take when problems arise. Mr. Eaton is correct, mechanics do not understand the Teves system and that's a problem. 

 

From the conversation I assume that the `1990 Rivera brake system would / could be a direct replacement for the Teves except for losing the ant-lock feature. Is this correct?  Is there anyone on the Forum who has done this conversion?

 

Thanks, Murray

[Errol1]

Thanks all. I see the consensus is pretty much what I thought it would be - if it works, why worry about it?